Spoiler Alert: Movie fans like a little variety

12:07 PM,
Jul. 3, 2013

Johnny Depp as Tonto, left, and Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger, in a scene from 'The Lone Ranger.'

Written by

Todd Hill
News Journal

The English poet William Cowper wasn't thinking about motion pictures when he wrote that "variety's the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor." Movies, after all, were still a few centuries away in 1785.

If this summer movie season is to be salvaged, however, it will be variety that does it.

Back before "Iron Man 3" kicked off the season on May 3, box-office prospects for this slate of titles were a bit sketchier than usual. And to be sure, there have been a bunch of bombs ("The Hangover Part III," "The Internship," "White House Down" and especially "After Earth"), with more certain to ...